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5/18/10

Writing Tip Tuesday: Possessive ['s]

Great to see someone else picking up on this! However, there's something else that bothers me more, and that's the mis-use of the 's. Because it's sweeping across English-speaking countries, it's even becoming prevalent here in Germany! There's a shop not too far from where I live that proudly proclaims "Beauty and Nail's." Ugh! And recently, I'm sure I saw this line on the internet somewhere: "Who want's to be a millionaire?" Holy flying cowpats!

Can you do a Writing Tip Tuesday about this? Help them, LDS Publisher, you're their only hope! ;-)

I have been guilty of adding or omitting the apostrophe—not because I don't know better but because I'm typing too fast or my software does an auto-fix and guesses wrong.

However, on signage? NO EXCUSE!

The 's shows possession.

Example: Melanie's comment was dead on.

If the word is plural, there is no apostrophe.

Example: Beauty and Nails.

There are some exceptions, for example, its vs it's. The possessive its has no apostrophe. The apostrophe is only used in the contraction for it is.

15 comments:

I wrote concerning the difference between "its" and "it's" on my blog a little while ago. I went through a logical reason why the possessive is "its" when most possessives follow a different pattern. You can read it here: http://timtypes.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/its-or-its/

I read that pronouns do not use aprostrophes and other than that the apostrophe is used to show possession. I also read that it is a style choice when writing indicating the plural of CDs. You can write CD's. The apostrophe S can get a bit confusing at times. I notice that I use it on accident something when writing fast myself.